MattVillaPortsmouth

Need a bit more bite, on a whole not terrible (or at least no worse than last 4 games) - making the ‘one man team’ excuse to predictable.

sanson on for me, either Barkley or Barkley off!! Put AEG through middle with Ollie, And go a bit narrower.  
 

One thing I really don’t like is how slow the defence is in moving ball forward, becomes far to telegraphed.

1 hour ago, Greenfly said:

The midfield three shouldn't pick itself imo. It should be rotated depending on what we need them to do in order to cope with the next opponent.

Top teams can impose their style on anyone and play however they like, but we're not quite a top team yet. We're still at that point where the way we set up should be in response to what other teams above us usually do.

I don't get the impression that's what we're doing. Smith has his way of playing, and he sets up to do it every time. That's fine and all, but it could be what keeps us from gatecrashing Europe this season.

Totally this - our best midfield 3 should not be set in stone, it should be adaptive depending on opposition, fitness, game plan , form (yes there are times when other factors affect a player) etc - 6,8,10s

We have finally amassed a good group of players here now, with some good young talent coming through.

Airing on the side it was frustration with himself more than anything when he came off, overall wasn’t that bad today getting sharper and minutes under his belt will be good for him - let’s not forget who we have actually played (and there form) since his lengthy lay off.

Like others have said, was respectful to Ramsey and Deano, and was still watching the team wanting the win.

jury is still out for me, but he does have class - and cream will always rise to the top at some point

Saw someone call it in COVID thread - it’s this game and the Arsenal one were we were gonna feel the affects of the 10 days off due to COVID - should have switched it up, but we not in the league of winning all our games.  WHU are a good unit this season.

Just now, VillaAlex said:

Given the criticism he gets, some rightfully at times, he was superb today.

Couldn’t agree more, peeps quick to jump on for any (perceived) mistake but was brilliant today (especially liked the celebrating a block)

To me,  to progress we need a couple of things, firstly consistency (top ** and/or Europe) or to win something - so providing we continue our form, summer should be looking to consolidate/establish/maintain our position, the top top players won’t come to sit on bench, so at moment for me it’s 1 big signing I summmer and replace Elmo, Taylor, Guilbert with younger versions these don’t have to be world beaters, just better but not just squad fillers.

These replacements need to either be capable of covering a player in first eleven or even better offer something different (our best players are not always our best eleven for a particular match) - so a big nasty CDM, or a defensive winger, or a technical striker 

The marque signing is either a Barkley replacement if not him, or him. 
 

Then it’s 1 or 2 bigs a year plus reap the rewards of our new invigorated youth set up.

17 minutes ago, Okonokos said:

The best thing about the goal was he never for one second looked like missing. You can't teach that.

Agreed, as soon as he got in front of defender I had no doubts it would be a goal, did everything right and looked natural.

Looks tired to me, and misses Barkley - Jack through the middle and traore right changes our dynamics and in general means more running the channels for Ollie and then needs to be in box, it’s no coincidence are wingers are scoring more than him last few games.   Needs a break - there were 2 or 3 times last night his legs just didn’t do as they were told.

Rest for Cup, get Ross back and he bags a brace next game he plays.

So only Spurs and Man City have conceded more than us in league, and 7 of our 16 came in 2 games - No issues from me.

He brings so much more than hause (yes Hause stepped in and was solid enough, but surely that’s what we want, our backups to provide adequate cover when needed).  Very few if any CB’s will never make a mistake, some mistakes go unpunished some lead to a goal - that’s football!  

For me we played well enough to take a share of the points, or even all 3 last night - at Man Utd, who are on good form with a wealth of talent - no need for scapegoat.

but yeah, ditch the gum - I hate that!!

2 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Harsh on Hause that.

Sends out the wrong message imo. No matter how well you play there are "certain" players that are undroppable.

To be fair, mings is more rested, means we can play hause in cup and rest up konsa  - don’t see it as being the wrong message, we don’t have many options to give players a rest

1 hour ago, Sulberto21 said:

It was said in the last game that they split it left side and right side. As opposed to cb and full backs. Terry takes the left. Probably shows as we are less vulnerable on the left.

For the pre game warm up.   No way we split defence normal training.

Wasnt at our best, but fair play to them (as much as I hate saying it) there game plan worked - we just need to cut out the moaning/feeling hard down by approach if it doesn’t go our way and keep in the fight.

jack or Konsa score and it’s a different outcome.
 

Barkley doesn’t look totally fit to me, we need all 3 to tick in the middle

2 hours ago, Paulie said:

only difference is tammy was initially slotted directly back into the first team XI at chelsea and it seemed like that was the plan on chelsea's plan all along.  hard to see where barkley fits into the chelsea midfield 12 months from now.

And Chelsea had a transfer ban, so couldn’t buy to replace 

3 more would be great (LB (starter), CB (backup) and Forward (can play in 2 of 3 front positions) but unrealistic.  LB would be my priority but think we will end up with a forward (pace pace pace).

i would settle for a bench of - Steer, Nakamba, Hourihane, Ramsey, Hause, Trez, *******

A chance for a few to stake a claim to stay and fight for place blown, Elmo, el ghazi, Lansbury can go and Davies needs to go on loan.

Was like watching last season, not many balls into space, weak on ball, zero creativity- stoke hardly had to play
 

el ghazi - decision making is piss poor

Just now, tom_avfc said:

Great start to the season. I reckon the lack of subs may well be down to us having Stoke in three days time. A full 90 minutes for the reserves again there. 

 Agreed, Traoré will get 90 there, that will be better for him than 20 odd tonight.  Was important (if he is in plans) to get Ramsey some minutes.  

No doubt he will get goals, hopefully sooner rather than later (prem that is!) - I see him getting goals against the so called big teams, - what he brings to the team other than goals is great,  only becomes an issue if a) others are not scoring or b) he is not getting chances or creating them

To be fair, he came back from injury into lockdown, played a lot of minutes after lockdown, then a short break into a reduced pre-season.  I don’t think he was particularly good or bad today, some good, some ok, some bad - but with a bit of confidence (team wise) and speed in the team I think we will see him improve to be the player most hoped he would be in prem.  some peeps have either crazy expectations or very short memories.

Smith needs to chat with Gareth Southgate, if Jack can get in the squad (poss 5 sept game) then it’s another plus to stay here, shame England games not till then (if it goes ahead). 
 

We are in a strong position as a club (finances, contract, still in prem), unless he forces a move which I don’t think he will.  80m is absolute min, only time I would accept lower would be City, 60m plus cancel Luiz buy back and Foden
 

whatever happens, it can’t drag on, only a short pre season so ideally ins and outs done early

Need to go with ‘must win’ again, even if a draw could be enough, we need same attitude so need to keep it in our hands.

That being said, I think we will draw but stay up, some last minute goal at either here or Bournemouth keeps us up.

Big plus for me, a couple of times I saw the Clenched Fist come on attitude for a tackle, or good piece of work, bit of grit and determination which I think helped massively with keeping the clean sheet, something I have not seen too much of in other players.

I wouldn’t have expected any other answer, and I think there is a lot more truth in his answer than we think - ie a lot depends on, if we stay up and who comes in for him, still all to play for from our point, stay up and show him we can improve he will stay

13 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

With his awful display and the fact he did more harm than good he should have bought Trez off at HT. Even a turd wouldn't have stuck to him today he was that poor.

For all his turdiness I would wager he would have scored the AEG chance.

back on subject, I would have had McGinn off for Nakamba, and prob would have gone guilbert not AEG.  The moment the commentator brought up how many we conceded in last 15m and we only had 8 to hold out you could tell it was coming. 

For me it a little bit of everything, the way I see it:

- Promoted 1 year to early, I don’t think that was in the plans.

- A lot of the players (imo) were on the list for a year in championship to get us up (Konsa, Jota, Targett et al) as we had to fill the squad so got them in.

- We then took a risk on a few, those who (again imo) would stay if relegated (Wesley, nakamba, Luiz, trez).

- We wanted that 1 Top Drawer player - just don’t think we could convince the ones we wanted or were massively priced out of it (which in one way is a plus).

What we banked on was an early ‘run’ of form, a few surprise results to help everyone settle in (language early season was definitely  a barrier for some) It just never happened, football can be very much a ‘momentum’ thing especially for those without A squad of worldies.  

Injurys and League position scuppered January plans, And again resorted to taking risks (what we don’t know is who made the final calls on Drinkwater, Samatha, Borjan).

On the pitch, the way our Forward never seems to be the furthest forward, or how we play it round the back until we get closed down and mings rush clears or we get to half way line and turn back, how we don’t pass into space and rarely move the ball quickly is 70/30 Coaching/Players, at some point even if you are coached/Set up that way, players can take on some responsibility.

I don’t think (on paper) we are in the bottom 3 in quality, even taking off my claret and blue tinted glasses I feel we SHOULD have had enough to be around 16-14 place.  We lack a natural Leader on the pitch.

So whose accountable - Board -> Smith -> Players 

I kinda want smith to stay, but I would want a better number 2 and a leader in the squad. If we stay up, I think even 2-3 shrewd signings and we have the makings of a decent mid table team.  If we go down I don’t see many leaving (Grealish, Mings only) and we then go from +1 on the plan to -1 year.  I don’t see many managers out there in our reach who would be any different (calling for Poch etc in plain crazy).